Charge-Trapping Devices Using Multilayered Dielectrics for Nonvolatile Memory Applications

Charge-trapping devices using multilayered dielectrics were studied for nonvolatile memory applications. The device structure is Al/Y2O3/Ta2O5/SiO2/Si (MYTOS). The MYTOS field effect transistors were fabricated using Ta2O5 as the charge storage layer and Y2O3 as the blocking layer. The electrical characteristics of memory window, program/erase characteristics, and data retention were examined. The memory window is about 1.6 V. Using a pulse voltage of 6 V, a threshold voltage shift of ~1 V can be achieved within 10 ns. The MYTOS transistors can retain a memory window of 0.81 V for 10 years

Transformer-based Variable-rate Image Compression with Region-of-interest Control

This paper proposes a transformer-based learned image compression system. It is capable of achieving variable-rate compression with a single model while supporting the region-of-interest (ROI) functionality. Inspired by prompt tuning, we introduce prompt generation networks to condition the transformer-based autoencoder of compression. Our prompt generation networks generate content-adaptive tokens according to the input image, an ROI mask, and a rate parameter. The separation of the ROI mask and the rate parameter allows an intuitive way to achieve variable-rate and ROI coding simultaneously. Extensive experiments validate the effectiveness of our proposed method and confirm its superiority over the other competing methods.Comment: Accepted to IEEE ICIP 202

TransTIC: Transferring Transformer-based Image Compression from Human Visualization to Machine Perception

This work aims for transferring a Transformer-based image compression codec from human vision to machine perception without fine-tuning the codec. We propose a transferable Transformer-based image compression framework, termed TransTIC. Inspired by visual prompt tuning, we propose an instance-specific prompt generator to inject instance-specific prompts to the encoder and task-specific prompts to the decoder. Extensive experiments show that our proposed method is capable of transferring the codec to various machine tasks and outshining the competing methods significantly. To our best knowledge, this work is the first attempt to utilize prompting on the low-level image compression task

Ray Tracing Simulation in Nonspherically Symmetric Atmosphere for GPS Radio Occultation

A three-dimensional ray tracing model with aiming algorithms for global positioning system (GPS) signal is proposed to make simulations conform to the realistic radio occultation (RO) signal propagation. The two aiming algorithms used in this study ensure the initial and end point ray trajectories are located in the prescribed region. In past studies, the ray tracing techniques applied to the RO signal simulation usually assumed a spherically symmetrical atmosphere for simplicity. The exact GPS and low earth orbit (LEO) satellite locations are not considered in the simulation. These two assumptions make the simulation unrealistic for GPS signal propagation in the RO technique. In the proposed model, the shape of the earth is assumed as an ellipse. The information from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analysis is used to setup the atmosphere in the simulation. Two aiming algorithms are developed to determine the initial signal propagating direction to make the simulated signal start from the prescribed GPS satellite position and end in the close vicinity of the LEO satellite position. An ideal spherical symmetric atmospheric structure is used to verify the ray tracing model. The fractional difference between real and simulated refractivity results is less than 0.1%. Otherwise, the GPS and LEO satellite position in the Formosat-3/COSMIC observation and the ECMWF analysis, considering the earth¡¦s flattening, is also used to verify the aiming algorithms. All of the simulated signals end in close vicinity to the LEO satellite position in the simulation results

Charge-Trapping Devices Using Multilayered Dielectrics for Nonvolatile Memory Applications

Charge-trapping devices using multilayered dielectrics were studied for nonvolatile memory applications. The device structure is Al/Y 2 O 3 /Ta 2 O 5 /SiO 2 /Si (MYTOS). The MYTOS field effect transistors were fabricated using Ta 2 O 5 as the charge storage layer and Y 2 O 3 as the blocking layer. The electrical characteristics of memory window, program/erase characteristics, and data retention were examined. The memory window is about 1.6 V. Using a pulse voltage of 6 V, a threshold voltage shift of ∼1 V can be achieved within 10 ns. The MYTOS transistors can retain a memory window of 0.81 V for 10 years

Increasing Ceftriaxone Resistance in Salmonellae, Taiwan

In Taiwan, despite a substantial decline of Salmonella enterica serotype Choleraesuis infections, strains resistant to ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone persist. A self-transferable blaCMY-2-harboring IncI1 plasmid was identified in S. enterica serotypes Choleraesuis, Typhimurium, Agona, and Enteritidis and contributed to the overall increase of ceftriaxone resistance in salmonellae

Eradication of intracellular Francisella tularensis in THP-1 human macrophages with a novel autophagy inducing agent

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

The dimer interface of the SARS coronavirus nucleocapsid protein adapts a porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus-like structure

AbstractWe have employed NMR to investigate the structure of SARS coronavirus nucleocapsid protein dimer. We found that the secondary structure of the dimerization domain consists of five α helices and a β-hairpin. The dimer interface consists of a continuous four-stranded β-sheet superposed by two long α helices, reminiscent of that found in the nucleocapsid protein of porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus. Extensive hydrogen bond formation between the two hairpins and hydrophobic interactions between the β-sheet and the α helices render the interface highly stable. Sequence alignment suggests that other coronavirus may share the same structural topology